Daddy on roller skates

A couple weeks back our little niece Maya turned 5. She had her party at the skating rink. I think Lyle wanted to prove he was some what still young so he slipped on some skates. A bit shaky at first but he picked it up quick. I only saw him almost wipe completely out once! I really shouldn't make fun of him. I would have wiped out about 10 times. Luckily, I had the excuse of being pregnant:) He later said...'Man, that was nothing like I remember it!' Ha! Getting old stinks! Ella loved loved loved having him out there with her. Here are a few pics:

Our 10th wedding anniversary trip to Spain

On June 7th 2013, Lyle and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We had always planned on going somewhere fun for this milestone but when the time came money was a little tight so we figured we would have to push it to our 15th. But then we were awarded a grant for our science project which included some travel money so we started to look for conferences and found one in Sitges Spain! So, on October 5th, we boarded a plane to Barcelona. It was quite fitting because 10 years ago to the day we boarded a plane to Paris, France for our honeymoon:)

Here are a couple pictures of the our trip:
Here we are on the plane for our 7 hour flight to Barcelona. The passengers in front of us were on their honeymoon taking pics of themselves like this so we thought we would join in on the fun.

 Lyle on the train from Barcelona to Sitges which is 30 minutes south right on the Mediterranean Coast.

Almost a full 24 hours later, we arrived in Sitges. When we got off the train, we had no idea where our hotel was but figured since the city wasn't that big we could just head for the coast and surely see it. Well, we were very wrong! We walked about 30 minutes in the wrong direction until we finally decided to get a taxi. It was a nice walk though and let us see lots of the city which was adorable. Lots of smalls shops along twisty streets that filled the hills near the coastline.

We finally made it to our hotel and were greeted by this beautiful view from our balcony

Once we got to the room, we ordered lunch and crashed!! My body and these babies had had enough. I needed sleep!

That night, which was Saturday, we walked down to the city center to a Catholic Church were we attended mass. Here is a quick pic of the church.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner at one of the many seafood restaurants. If you can't tell by his face this was Lyle's favorite meal of the week. He melted with happiness when he tried his soup and wine. Yes, Lyle ordered a whole bottle of wine everynight although this poor wife could not partake...well besides a few small sips. Man, was it good wine! Our wine at home just really can't compare to the wine they have in Europe.

This is the city at night. It was so beautiful and peaceful! We really hit this place at the right time of the year. Not too crowded.

We spent the rest of the week exploring the city and trying just about every restaurant we could find along with every dessert shop!
The conference was a really good one as well. It was our first conference together and really fun to share ideas and talk about the science presented. Gave us lots of good ideas for experiments in the future.

Here we are in front of the poster we presented. Yes, I still have problems opening my eyes for iphone pics!

We also had the chance to ride some trains down the coast to visit some of the surrounding cities. One in particular was an old Roman port city named Tarragona. It was bigger than Sitges but very beautiful with all of the ancient Roman ruins left in the city.

On our way back, we accidentally jumped on the wrong train and got about a 30 minute extra tour of the Spain coastline but we didn't mind. We eventually ended up back at the hotel:)

Our last night out Lyle ordered champagne to celebrate our 10 years. Although, I didn't drink but a few small sips it was fun to look at and reminisce over the last 10 years.

Before we left, I asked the hotel manger to take our picture in the lobby. Lyle hates to ask people to take our picture.

 It is very similar to this picture which was taken on our last day in the hotel lobby in Paris 10 years ago. Something things never change!

We had a nice trip home with absolutely no long layovers or delays. And when we got home around midnight we were greeted to this with a clean house, two sleeping kids and one tired Mims!

We literally could not have pulled off this trip without the help of my parents who watched the kids for the first couple of days and then Mims who drove up from TX to help. I think the kids had just as much fun as we did! Thank you so much for your support! We had a fantastic time!!!